1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transport apparatus for transporting products, supplied onto a lower transport path, successively to an upper transport path positioned above the lower transport path and a loading apparatus utilizing the transport apparatus for loading the products into a receptacle, both of said transport apparatus and said loading apparatus being utilizable in a product transport system or a product delivery system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of a packaging machine for packaging or bagging food items or industrial machine parts is disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Mid-open (Unexamined) Utility Model Publication No. 60-171803 published Nov. 14, 1985. This known packaging machine is of a design capable of performing a series of bag making, filing products into each bag and successively sealing the bags. More specifically, this packaging machine performs a process of folding a web of film, made of synthetic resin and drawn from a film roll disposed rearwardly upwardly of the body of the packaging machine, along a mid center line to bring opposite side edges thereof together, fusion-bonding the overlapping side edges of the web of film together (vertical sealing) to provide a tubular film, intermittently transporting the tubular film in a direction conforming to the longitudinal axis of the tubular film while sandwiching it in a direction widthwise thereof, and thermally sealing the tubular film at the sandwiched area (transverse or cross sealing) to provide a series of bags. By successively filling products into each bag through an upper open mouth thereof while the tubular film is intermittently transported with sandwiched at a lower portion in a direction widthwise, the bags of products filled therein can be successively manufactured. The bagged products manufactured by this known packaging machine are subsequently discharged from a front of the body of the packaging machine downwardly and, after the discharged bagged products have been loaded into a receptacle, for example, a carton box, in unit of a plurality of bags of products, the carton box is packaged and baled for shipment to the market.
When it comes to a filing the bagged products, such as manufactured by the above described packaging machine or the like, into a receptacle such as a cannon box, it is a general practice to allow the bagged products to fall downwardly towards the carton box along a downwardly inclined chute. The downwardly inclined chute is effective in that, where each bagged product has a substantial weight such as, for example, a bag of salt or sugar, the bagged products can slide downwardly along the chute stably under the influence of a gravitational force without substantially displacing in position and posture and be finally seated properly within the carton box to assume a predetermined lay-out inside the carton box.
However, the use of the downwardly inclined chute has been found problematic particularly where each bagged product is light-weight such as a bag of potato chips. More specifically, since the bag of potato chips is very light-weight, it tends to stand still halfway along the chute, or to be displaced in position and posture, during its slide down to the carton box, resulting in a change in orientation of the bagged product. In addition, with the light-weight bagged products, it may often occur that some of the light-weight bagged products are caught by a top peripheral edge defining an opening of the carton box with the orientation thereof consequently varied to such an extent that the bagged products may eventually placed inside the carton box in a disordered fashion. Thus, the use of the downwardly inclined chute has been considered ineffective, or difficult, to accomplish a stable and orderly supply of the light-weight bagged products assuredly into the carton box.
In view of the foregoing, automation of a series of transporting and packaging of the light-weight bagged products such as bags of potato chips has long been considered impossible, or at least difficult, to achieve and, therefore, it is a customarily accepted practice to load the light-weight bagged products manually into the carton box, accompanied by a reduction in work efficiency.
On the other hand, with the prior art packaging machine of the above discussed type, products are filled into each bag through a top opening thereof and the resultant bagged products are discharged successively downwardly. Accordingly, a delivery position onto which the bagged products are discharged from the packaging machine is defined at a location adjacent a ground floor. Because of this, the loading of the bagged products into the receptacle or carton box equally placed adjacent the ground floor cannot be accomplished with no difficulty. Therefore, where it is desired for the bagged products, discharged onto the delivery site adjacent the ground floor, to be automatically loaded into the carton box by the use of the chute, the packaging machine as a whole has to be installed at a level high above the ground floor, rendering a system of bagging (packaging), transporting and loading the products to become bulky in size requiring a relatively large dedicated space for installation. This imposes a limitation on the freedom of lay-out of the factory as a whole.
In view of the foregoing problems inherent in the prior art system, the inventors of the present invention has made an attempt to transport the bagged products, discharged onto the delivery site adjacent the ground floor, to a level high above the ground floor by the use of a transport apparatus such as, for example, a conveyor and then to load the bagged product from above into the receptacle placed at a location adjacent the ground floor. However, this attempt has been found requiring the use of the conveyor having such a substantial length as to result in an increased size of the automated transport and packaging system.
On the other hand, where the bagged product discharged from the packaging machine are received and transported by the transport apparatus such as, for example, a conveyor, to a loading station at which the bagged products are loaded the receptacle, the bagged products are generally transported with respective back faces thereof oriented upwardly. The back face of each bagged product has a longitudinal seal at which opposite side edges of a web of film have been thermally bonded together. The reason that the bagged products are generally transported with their back faces oriented upwardly will now be discussed.
As discussed hereinbefore, the prior art packaging machine performs a process of folding a web of resinous film along a mid center line to bring opposite side edges thereof frontwardly at the packaging machine, fusion-bonding the overlapping side edges of the web of film together to provide a tubular film having a longitudinal seal, intermittently transporting the tubular film while thermally sealing a transverse portion of the tubular film corresponding in position to the bottom of a bag, filling a quantity of products into the resultant bags and finally sealing a top opening of the filled bags before they are discharged frontwardly at the packaging machine onto the delivery site. Consequently, at the time the filled bags are discharged from the packaging machine, the respective back faces of the filled bags having the longitudinal seals are oriented upwardly. The face of each filled bag where the longitudinal seal is found is generally considered a back face, and indicia such as advertisements and manufacturer's identifications have been printed on each of the back and front faces of each filled bag.
Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 11, where the bagged products X discharged successively from the packaging machine (not shown) are to be transported onto a transport conveyor b through a guide member a, each bagged product X resting on the transport conveyor b is transported to a predetermined side, having its front and back faces X1 and X2 reversed with the back face X2 thereof oriented upwardly due to the peculiarity in structure. In such case, the bagged products X transported to the predetermined site are loaded into the carton box with their back faces X2 oriented upwardly. Because of this, it is a customary practice for the attendant worker to reverse the bagged products manually one by one at the predetermined site so that the back face of each bagged product can be oriented downwardly, i.e., towards the bottom of the carton box, thereby involving a considerable reduction in work efficiency.
It is often practiced to selectively use various receptacles or carton boxes of different sizes or capacities depending on the number and/or shape of the bagged products to be accommodated within the receptacles or carton boxes. In such case, in order to avoid the necessity of use of the receptacle or carton box of a relatively large size or capacity to accommodate a given number of the bagged products and to allow the given number of the bagged products to be packed compact within the receptacle or carton box of a given size or capacity, and also in order to facilitate a handling of the filled receptacles or carton boxes accommodating the bagged products, it has been desired that the bagged products can be automatically loaded into the receptacle or carton box with the orientation of some or all of the bagged products having been changed 90 degrees with its lengthwise and widthwise directions replaced with each other if appropriate or desired. The prior art has not yet reached to a level to provide a practically acceptable system effective to accomplish this desire.
In addition, when it comes to a loading of the bagged products, manufactured by the above described packaging machine, into the receptacle such as, for example, a carton box, in unit of a plurality of bagged products, a downwardly inclined chute is generally utilized to allow the bagged products to slide downwardly by the effect of a gravitational force from the packaging machine onto the receptacle. In this case, there is a possibility that some of the bagged products, which have been deemed unacceptable due to the bagged product containing an insufficient or excessive weight of products and/or containing foreign matter, may be loaded into the receptacle without being ejected. Because of this, where the chute is employed, a severe sorting job is required to select only the acceptable bagged products while ejecting the unacceptable bagged products. In addition, where a sorting mechanism for this purpose is to be assembled, it has long been a problem to assembly the sorting mechanism compact and reliable in operation.